Loose Horse!

Yesterday as I walked out to visit Abby, I could see the tractor parked by the old barn and knew that Tim was inside working on the repair/remodeling project he is doing in there. I stepped down through the open gate into the northeast pasture and stopped in surprise - Hokey was calmly standing there cropping grass.

The agribusiness next door is replacing the fence between the two properties, and it is not all in place yet so we are not putting the horses in there at the moment. And Tim would never have left a gate open if he planned to put horses in that pasture.

We had a loose horse.

A quick visual check showed that Trouble and Abby were in the northwest pasture where they were supposed to be. That was good news.

Luckily it was Hokey who had gotten out. He is easy to catch, especially if you have some of Charlotte's horse treats in your pocket. By this time Tim had stepped out of the old barn and also realized that Hokey was loose, too, so I told him that I'd catch him and put him back with the other horses. 

Catching Hokey was easy - I went into the new barn, grabbed a halter and lead rope, walked out to him holding a treat, and soon had him back where he belonged.

Tim and I were standing together in the paddock of the old barn looking around at all the gates and wondering just how Hokey had gotten out. All the gates of the northwest pasture were closed. 

And then, Hokey outsmarted himself.

He walked up to the paddock fence behind where we were standing. We turned to look at him and there it was - a board had come down and Hokey was getting ready to step over the remaining one and hightail it back into the other pasture again.

We shooed him back from the broken fence, and Tim went into the barn to get nails and a hammer. I stayed behind to keep the horses back - by now Trouble and Abby had joined Hokey and were quite interested in that open spot, too.

Although I didn't do much besides holding one end of the board while Tim hammered the other end in, I enjoyed helping Tim repair the fence. 

Just another day with horses - you never know what you will find!